Black Holes and Revelations
by Abusive Pen
Summary: Because gunslingers are not meant to stay in decaying mansions, especially when a hyperactive ninja, holds him at knifepoint, kidnaps him and asks for his help. A true testament of what could of happened if Yuffie found Vincent first. Yuffentine.
1. Chapter 1

Black Holes and Revelations, Ch. 1:

She tiptoed her way through the long dark corridors, smelling the rot and decay of the old Shinra Mansion. It was no longer a suitable foundation; should have been condemned several years ago but the townspeople of Nibelheim were scared to demolish it.

Shinra Mansion held too many dark secrets. Dark secrets the young ninja Yuffie wanted to unveil, because what was the fun of keeping secrets, well secret?

No, Yuffie was on a mission: a mission to unfold and unveil the wretched inner workings of a certain power electric company. A power electric company that imposed great fear in the hearts of the public and on the other hand disillusioned them with the idea of a better life, of a better world; the illusion of hope.

Nothing was, as it seemed.

There were small towns and villages controlled under a reign of great terror and fear, still unbeknownst to the larger cities that welcomed and favored Shinra. They garnered no attention.

Yuffie wasn't going to let that continue.

The world was not set right; the world was in BIG trouble.

And Yuffie, being well, Yuffie with pride equaling Shinra's own wanted to do something, ANYTHING; and if traveling miles upon miles in foreign land, slaying monsters that gave her the creeps, and lying completely awake for hours in fear of said monsters did some shred of good to the cause; she would do it over and over again.

Only if this helped.

She breathed a sigh of satisfaction as the brass key fit perfectly within the lock and clicked. Yuffie also felt the powerful red orb burn a whole through her tan shorts, metaphorically of course, a constant reminder of what she was there to do even if she would rather not do so.

Hey!

She was all down on saving the planet, would give her life to do so, this didn't mean Yuffie had to like it! There were things she would rather not do and crawling your way into some dark, wet, scary place, pretty much defined it.

She also hated sticky things, but the was for another story, another time.

Yuffie let a small squeak escape her mouth as she opened the door revealing a gun barrel pointed to her head, the owner clad in red. Her hands slightly in the air, a position screaming out, "I surrender!"

"Get out." The owner said in its rather rough yet smooth voice, bittersweet even, but Yuffie had no time delve in the matter, she had a freaking gun pointed to her head!

"I'd rather not." Well she really did want to comply. Who wanted to say no when a gun is pointed to your face?

Yuffie braved to look at said owner and came to face with a pair of red eyes. A pair of red, obviously maddening yet mesmerizing eyes, oh the conundrum! Another look of those eyes and Yuffie would have raised her arm in salute of the man and marched her way out of the mansion, but this was a matter of urgency!

He did not take lightly to the reply, as he let the sound of gunshot ripple a few inches above her head. "Get out." He repeated.

She shook her head no rather slowly; pretty sure any more movement might be the cause of her death. Yuffie could easily be wavered by others but she had her reasons for refusing him.

That is, if he was willing to listen to, only thing he wasn't. He shot several times trying to pinpoint his target, but with a ninja as rash and compulsive as Yuffie, predicting her next movements was next to impossible and so it was that she then cornered the mystery man. More like held him at knifepoint.

She held a small dagger to his jugular and another towards the bottom of his spine. Yuffie could be a meticulous ninja too; she just liked pretending she wasn't.

"Don't move. If you do so in either way you could find yourself dead or paralyzed for the rest of life," She smiled wryly, "none of which are helpful to your sweet Lucrecia." There was a hiss of sorts emitting from him as the muscles of his body tensed in hearing that name. "Don't be a prude man. I just want to talk and I can't have you very well trying to shoot me. Now sleep for we'll have our little discussion after you lightened up."

Yuffie felt the body go limp and flaccid in her arms after she casted sleep on the mystery man. She sighed seeing the wet noodle of a mess this man was, expecting more of a fight with him. It SEEMED too easy and she sighed again, suddenly feeling how arduous of a task this had all become.

When things are easy at the beginning it means worlds of difficulty later on. Point blank; capture was easy, persuasion well, Yuffie was never good at that particular thing and she knew that if she passed the test of the persuasion, then it meant an overwhelming obstacle later on.

MUCH later on, but this is a third point of view story, and she didn't know when this would be.

Yuffie really needed to think things out more before she acted them out, because now she had a rather large man in her hands and a very tedious journey ahead of her.

Grabbing the man's large legs within her own tiny hands, she noticed his very pointy iron shoes and made the sudden indication that this man was really, well old.

Yuffie didn't have to read his file to know that and smiled. Old fashion was going to meet modern day and there was going to be a clash of sorts, she just knew that. It kind of invigorated her, and so she smiled her trademark, full-set-of-teeth, watermelon smile.

But for now Yuffie had to trudge her way back to the entrance of the Shinra Mansion with mystery man in tow.

Dragging this man's ass out of the mansion was just one of the many things that lay in store for the near future of this little ninja.

She just never saw love as being one of the things in her future, especially with this weirdo of a man.

X-X-X-X

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What do you really think of it? Well review. Soundtrack will be available later.


	2. Chapter 2

Ch. 2: Words, Hands, Hearts

Her charcoal eyes darted back between the sleeping figure she had tied to the tree trunk and the picture within her hand. It baffled her, the difference between the past and present.

This was no longer the same man. While the man in the picture seemed bright and talented, even with his dusty, cinnamon eyes, he cared for his work ethic, Yuffie found this out by the creased file she carried with her. Now the man before her, albeit talented, she had experienced that first hand, radiated doom and gloom even as he slept. He was the opposite of the person in the picture.

Yuffie marveled at his smooth, marble complexion. He had faint scars on his cheekbones and brow, but all that added to ambiguity and mystery that he was. It would have looked bad on any other man, but Yuffie considered it to add character. He had silky, long, black mane; straight and smooth, dark tresses that cascaded down to his back, they perfectly contrasted with his pale skin. It was unruly a bit at the bottom but she found the sort of imperfection beautiful, and his case handsome.

Yuffie envied him for his hair; she self-consciously touched her short ebony hair. It was dull, and self botched, Yuffie found it impractical to have hair long as a ninja, it just got in her way.

He was handsome to be sure; no other man could pull off the "dark-yet-cool-stoic-handsome-look" without being considered a vampire. Initially, Yuffie had believed he was a vampire, but according to her, vampires didn't have the need to sleep and since he slept for so long, in a coffin no less, and slept the moment, he couldn't possible be a vampire! Thus ended Yuffie's deep and thorough analysis on vampires and mystery men that appeared like them.

He did however; remind her of an Edward Scissorhands. A very angry Edward Scissorhands, minus the hair. She looked at the peculiar oddity that served as his left hand, a golden gauntlet, skillfully crafted lethal weapon but held all the simplicity and delicacy of his other hand. Yuffie didn't know whether it was attached to body or if it was like a glove, after all his shoes were of the same gilded material, yet she wanted to touch it.

He stirred and Yuffie so anxious and elated felt the tiny bubble she called "emotions" about to burst, she sat Indian-style still waiting. He stirred again for what seemed like an eternity and Yuffiie so tired, never the type to be patient, wanted to either throttle him or swing her shuriken towards his head. Both options would lead to his unconsciousness, so she didn't do it.

Then one beautiful red eye opened, Yuffie jumped up, and then following eye, and he was scowling at her, which she expected. He looked at his surroundings for a moment feeling the tight rope binding him to a tree trunk; he tried to dismantle it with his claw, which Yuffie also expected. "I wouldn't do that if I you, Vincent Valentine. That's mastered ninja rope techniques you're messing with, pretty uncomfortable huh?"

Silenced loomed in and the wind cried a bit in the barren land outside of Nibelheim. It swayed and moved the grass, the tiny hairs on Yuffie's neck pricked up, she did not expect this silence. She hoped for an answer among the lines of, 'Yes, yes it is quite uncomfortable would you mind untying me?' or the several questions that a hostage might ask. 'Who are you? What do you want? Why are you doing this?' Yuffie didn't have much experience with kidnapping and all that jazz but she thought she had a pretty solid idea of it. Obviously not for all he ever did was scowl at her.

She took the initiative, ready to begin the task at hand, "Nice to meet you, Vinny. I'm the great ninja and master materia hunter Yuffie. I was born on November the twentieth and I will be your kidnapper for the day. So how are you feeling today?" Yuffie extended her hand as a common greeting.

"Like if someone casted sleep on me and tied me to a tree. By the way, I would love to shake your hand but I can't do so. I'm quite tied up at the very moment, if you haven't noticed." His voice dripped with modern day sarcasm. Yuffie didn't expect that either and feeling for the very first time in a while, she foolishly put her hand down, flushing with complete embarrassment and suddenly becoming angry.

As if she didn't know he was tied up! She could practically tie him up blindfolded!

Yuffie recovered quickly from his diatribe, set upon making her own. "I wouldn't say that if I were you, Vinny. I might never tell you why I'm holding you hostage." She smirked as she wiggled her index finger back and forth; Yuffie had waited for something that never came. It was the questions, the concerns, the sheer bright terror on his face that never came and it irritated her. "Aren't you going to ask?"

"I have a feeling you're going to tell me whether I ask you or not." He quirked his brow, "I am more interested in how you know my name."

She huffed and puffed, feeling insulted. "Just for that, I'm not going to tell you." Yuffie sat back down, openly staring him down with her own ebony eyes.

She stared.

He stared.

The wind decided to treacherous and evil to Yuffie today. For as it created several awkward pauses and silence, it decided to one more evil thing to Yuffie. It picked up slightly, revealing a very light patch of red in his eyes and Yuffie was a gonner. The undulating of his eyes mesmerized her, and she blinked.

Yuffie blinked and blinked and blinked. "Ah you cheated!" She waved her hands in accusation. "Cheater! You used your eyes to mind trick me into blinking. Oh how loathe cheaters. Redo. Redo Now."

"No. I won; now tell me how you know my name and how did you find me." Vincent had been subjected to this ridiculous game; at least she could do was tell him, that was his reward.

"Fine, fine. It's only fair." She picked herself up and brushed off the invisible dust particles on her pants. "I never thought I would loose at a staring contest." Yuffie grabbed a quilt from her satchel and lied down; she grabbed other materials from her satchel. Food. He gave her a pointed look, "What, this is going to take a while, and I'm hungry, if you don't mind."

"Get on with it."

"Alright, guys can be so fussy." She munched on peanut butter crackers. "I stumbled upon it." Yuffie smile cheekily. It was a vague answer, she knew that much.

"Excuse me?" He said.

It was a very vague answer.

"I. Stumbled. Upon. It. You wanted an answer, well there you go."

"It wasn't the answer I would have hoped for." Vincent said this dejectedly.

"Tough cookies. You never asked for specifics." She moved her head side to side; Yuffie-like.

"I'll remember next time." He said dryly.

"I really hope you do. Anyways, back to the main event." She motioned with her hands towards the sky. "You're right for one thing. I don't care if you ant know the details of your kidnapping, but whether you like it or not; you're going to hear me out." He said nothing to her rant. "When Shinra first became involved with Mako, the energy in which our domestic life runs on, they had employed five very special scientists. Professor Gast- the head of the new founded science department, his two assistants Hojo and Hollander and two other very different scientists Lucrecia Crescent and Grimoire Valentine."

He glared at her with his daunting eyes at the mention of the people who influenced a great part of his life.

"Bear with my story for a little longer." He nodded. "They were entrusted with rediscovering the old legends of the planet; like the ancients and the weapons of the planet."

"Ancients?"

"Yeah, the old wives tale of nomads with abilities that even materia can't grant us, searching for their promise land." She pointed towards the ground.

"I remember hearing those legends as a child."

"Did you ever think that they could be real?" She asked innocently.

"People from another distant planet decided to come hear, cultivated the land to discover that this wasn't the promise land they had wished for." He thought it over for a while. "It's just a fairy tale; an allusion of happiness they tell children."

"I think it's saddening. They never found their promised land. Then, why would they stay here?" She stared at the Nibel Mountains. It was a harsh life they would have lived, the moral of the story was that if you worked hard, in the end you would get your reward, but it was too cruel in Yuffie eyes.

"They never found it, did they?" It was more of a statement then a question.

"I don't know and neither did Gast and his team but they thought they discovered something." She pointed north. "In the northern continent a crater the size of a freaking Midgar they found this entity." She gave Vincent a look of disgust. "They thought she, no it, no her, I don't know what to really call it, to be an Ancient. They named it Jenova and the Jenova Project was established. I think you know where I'm going with this."

"They wanted to create an artificial Ancient."

"Yes, Shinra had a talent for attracting the demented in their workforce. Gast was considered unmerciful in his field, Hojo was no different and Hollander, he was just a stupid jerk. Lucrecia and Grimoire were humble, but he fell to his demise in a freak accident in their lab, and Lucrecia so burden with guilt turned to Hojo. No offenses but these people were all twisted, or were subjected to their human vanity."

He remained silent.

"That's where you came in. Ah well, you tried to stop her but Hojo got to her first. There's no use in helping that, and well we both know what happened to you because of it. Those experiments, that coffin…." Yuffie trailed off and tested the waters of what she called Vincent's face and emotion.

He was devoid of emotion; his face blank and dull. "Go on."

"They conceived their first child; Hojo and Lucrecia had a beautiful baby boy named Sephiroth. He had already been pumped up with enough Jenova cells and Mako during the gestation period, that it's a miracle they even survived. Lucrecia, after his birth disappeared, stricken with grief for what she had done" She breathed in. "The years past, the boy grew and Gast somehow grew a heart. Gast figured out something very terrible in the being of Jenova; she wasn't an Ancient or even human. He told his colleagues but they didn't care, Hojo had something better with Sephiroth, a mini soldier and he was going to exploit it. Gast turned in his resignation and fled Shinra just like so many others should have done. I think he should have taken Sephiroth with him or realized his mistake sooner. This world wouldn't have turned out like this."

His silence allowed her to continue.

"Sleeping in a coffin for so long does keep you out of reach and time with the world. Hmm. Shinra became even more powerful as they produced the sole energy source households demanded and they had their poster child, Sephiroth in hand if anyone ever decided to retaliate against them."

"Shinra?"

"Yes but they didn't get to keep their poster child for long. Sephiroth found out about the experiments that created him or at least understood he wasn't like the rest of us and he reacted violently to it. Official records say he was killed in action, but of course, Shinra controlled that and I doubt they were going to publish how their poster child went rogue. Rumor has it; Sephiroth nearly destroyed the whole town of Nibelhiem because of it. "

"What does that have to do with me?"

She picked at the frayed edges of her sea-foam green quilt, the peanut butter crackers long forgotten. "I don't," Yuffie paused, choosing her words very carefully, "I don't think it was he was at fault. I mean, yes he shouldn't have reacted that way, on the other hand it was all Shinra's doing." She clenched her hands into fists, her expression wrought in bitterness. "I can't forgive them for what they've done. They destroyed what little I had left. Vincent," He looked up. "I want your help to obliterate Shinra."

If she didn't know any better, Yuffie could've sworn she saw sadness on that rough yet perfect face and it melted away with his stern face. "No."

"Why? You have to!" She continued to whine.

"I don't."

"If wasn't for me you'd still be there in that coffin."

"I never asked for your help." His voice, that honey yet bittersweet liquid, Yuffie felt she was drowning in it. Her heart raced, her hands trembled, her body suddenly cold and rigid as she tried to swim her way back to the fight. It had that much of an affect.

"That may be true but you're still here." That was it, she had found herself back in the land of the living. "If you won't concede to me in the normal fashion hostages are meant to do. Then you give me no choice," Yuffie had her arms crossed standing up tall, like the brave, and proud young sixteen year old she was. "This is your chance to get your revenge on Shinra, for what they did to you!"

"That was Hojo, not Shinra."

"Okay, sure, but who do you think works for Shinra? Do you think that while you've been sleeping away the rest of your life, he's been standing idly, twiddling his thumbs with his head stuck up his ass?"

"I am at fault too. If I had known better I could have changed her mind, if I had tried harder then-" He never had the chance to finish that sentence.

"No. You couldn't have. That was her decision Vincent, no matter how many times you play that scene over and over in your mind, there was nothing you could do." Yuffie licked her lips, laying out the last of her tricks. "Help me Vince and I'll help you. I'll take you to her."

That caught his attention as he glared at her some more. "What is it that you are asking of me?" He was never the type to beat around the bush.

Yuffie smiled grimly at the thought of her asinine tactics, she didn't want to obligate him in this way. "Nothing more than your help. You're a former Turk, the main men of Shinra, apart from SOLDIER who I hear get paid very little compared to Turks, and you know all of Shinra's dirty deeds, all the little skeletons in their closet. You're a valuable source of information; give me your helping hand, that's all, and in return I'll show you where Lucrecia resides."

"Resides?"

"She's alive and well, only her location is remotely difficult to reach." She kept her eyes on him, "I can only do this if you help me first. Will you?"

"Hojo."

"It's a strong possibility that we'll encounter him, we are attacking Shinra."

He paused longer than Yuffie would have wanted him to. It was supposed to be a done deal, he'd help her and she would return the favor. There was nothing for him to think on, but she knew he was a cautious and meticulous fellow, he had to be, a Turks job was never easy, this wasn't going to be easy either and it was with great consideration he accepted her offer.

"Okay then!" Yuffie clapped her hands in joy, picking up her belongings on the floor and then setting them in her satchel. "We'll cross through Cosmo Canyon and make our way to Costa Del Sol, from there take a boat to Junon," she fidgeted nervously at the mention of boats and gave Vincent another look. "Hey get up man. We're not going to get much done today if you stay sitting there like a punished two year old."

"I can't, you tied me up to the tree. Remember?"

Yuffie stared at him for a half of a second. "Your claws ripped through the rope before I began my story, remember?" She grinned that half-of-a-watermelon smile and walked a few away feet ahead. "Did you think I wouldn't noticed Vinny?" She heard the rustling of his clothes as he picked himself up from the floor and rubbed his wrists.

"I was hoping you wouldn't."

"Hmm."

"What makes you think I won't betray you, escape and leave you for dead?"

"Ah. You see, one, I have your quicksilver," she patted her satchel at the mention of his gun, "two, I just offered you the chance of a lifetime to get the girl of your dreams back and get revenge on the man who ruined your life, and you're going to do what? Strand me in the middle of the Corel Desert and run back to that little of coffin of yours, knowing she's out there." Yuffie looked at him skeptically, "Because that's the most logical thing for you to do." She crossed her arms with a haughty gaze. "You're too much of a gentleman to ever hurt a little girl like me Vinny; albeit odd and sardonic type of gentleman nevertheless still a gentleman."

"I should warn you to never underestimate me."

"Likewise." She extended her hand once again to him, "So to make it official; I have your word right? No betrayal of any kind."

"You have my word." He walked past her in the direction of the Cosmo Canyon. Yuffie decided that the situation had not turned for the worst, despite how unconventional her methods of persuasion had been, she still had the man in the palm of her hand.

* * *

A/N: Reviews would be great! sorry it took so long.

**Soundtrack is UP! **Check my author profile for the songs of chapter one and two. My goal is to have at least roughly fifteen songs for each chapter, songs that I believe that go with the feel of the story or songs that I listened while writing the chapters! Any questions feel free to ask and I'll see if I can answer them.

Commentary:

Lady PenThier: There are several things I'm considering, but as for now, I can definitely tell you that I do want them to meet AVALANCHE. The question is how?


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Have you guys giving up on me yet? Well I have. This was written a long time ago, an extremely long time ago, but I wanted to hold onto it, because I was having trouble with this chapter. It was originally intended to be longer. Way, way longer, but I felt, I was rambling, so it was cut. The other half makes up chapter four, and after finally realizing what I wanted chapter three to focus on, chapter four needs to be revised and looked at too. So yeah, sorry for the delay. Really, extremely sorry.

P.S: I decided that I should at least try to update once a month, that way this story actually gets somewhere, and gets my butt in gear. What do you guys think of that? Reviews would be lovely.

**B&B**

Ch.3: Lost Souls Forever

She felt her clothes cling to her body, soaked from head to toe; Yuffie crawled her way out of the shallow end of the river. She felt welt and slimy, the dirt of the past days running down her thighs and her once orange sneakers were now caked with mud.

Yuffie needed a bath, but more urgently, the young ninja needed a break. She glanced to her side; a very worn and ragged Vincent had kept up with her vigorous pace through the continents.

She was used to traveling through tough terrain, and it would have been easy if it weren't for the fact that she hated crossing bodies of water. They had always unsettled her since she was young. They churned and swirled what little she had in her stomach, they made the color of her usually rosy cheeks pale and sweat form at her brow.

Was it motion sickness?

Yes, yes it was and she got it very easily.

None of that mattered at the moment for she dragged herself to the grassy plains of this new continent while Vincent stood following her. "Let's take a break, at this rate, I'm going to die." She muttered to the blades of grass, as she lied face down.

"I thought you said you don't tire easily." His said in a matter-of-fact way and at this, she pouted.

If Yuffie had two gil for every time Vincent Valentine criticized or annoyed her, she would be rich. Although money wasn't much of an issue for her and Yuffie was pretty much sure she was also rude and callous for either them to care about the niceties of their partnership.

Or so she thought. Sometimes Yuffie didn't realize what she was saying until it was out in the airwaves and this tended to hurt her appearance in the eyes of other people. If they hadn't already known that this was just, how she just was. Yuffie came without a filter.

Speaking of which… "Get off my ass, will you? I don't need you poisoning my livelihood with your morose attitude."

Yuffie was usually a good person, maybe too energetic to the point of being annoying or coming off careless, but she never thought much of it. After all, Yuffie never really had difficulty with people before, not to this extremity at least. People would eventually accept her for being herself and not think twice about it. He didn't, he kept picking and picking and scabbing at her, trying to contradict the very being known as Yuffie and she hated it. She knew what he was trying to do and saw him as this pretentious jerk that got under her skin and like to rub her in all the wrong ways.

Yeah, she wasn't very fond of him.

Or.

As the thought suddenly reared its ugly head in to her mind, maybe he wasn't fond of her. Maybe the reason he tried to find fault in her it had to do with the fact what she did to him. She took him away from his only comfort, in that dirty old mansion and practically forced to do her bidding.

Yuffie knew she wouldn't like her kidnapper. What made her think he would?

She shook her head. That was all just nonsense!

Who would want to spend the rest of their life stuck in some dirty old coffin when they could spend it traveling it with fun and lively Yuffie? Okay, so what if she could talk the ears off of people and occasionally swiped said people from their possessions. Meeting her was at least a much better fate than sleeping in a coffin for the rest of his life.

Right?

She thought so.

"What I meant is for being the self-proclaimed greatest ninja, you lack stamina." She heard him say with some light sarcasm.

"I'm a little rough around the edges. Get over it." She growled and pulled blades of grass from the soil pretending they were actually Vincent's dark hair.

"No excuses." She felt the slight smirk creeping on his lips, the one where Vincent had stated something irrefutable. But Yuffie does not like it. Hates it even. Those lips with their smirk mock her. They could have been appealing once, if they had not been used against her. Now those potentially appealing lips with laden smirk were only a threat to her.

"Hey! I haven't had the opportunity to train as much as I should have. I was looking for you!"

"It's still no excuse. Your title as the 'Great Ninja' will be stripped away if you keep this up." There was slight laughter in his eyes and she did not like that at all.

NOT AT ALL. He was trying to find a fault in her. Damn him for that. Then again, she asked for it. How many times did she stand upon a small hill and declare herself the greatest ninja alive?

Several times, if she was being honest here and he, was pointing out how she wasn't living up to her title.

"I don't like you at the moment." Yuffie didn't like him regardless of the moment. She pouted and crossed her arms, "I would be fine if we didn't have to cross those two rivers."

"What does crossing rivers have to do with your low level of endurance?" She suddenly found him lying next to her on the grass field and his cloak set out to dry. Vincent wore a whole black ensemble, and this didn't surprise her, this was of course, Vincent. A crazy gunman who tried to be mysterious and sexy to others, but she had already him figured out, so nothing about him really surprised her, yet Vincent was at the moment, trying to take away what made her a great ninja.

Nice try, Vinny.

To bad Yuffie saw through that facet and he was going to loose at making her less of whom she was. She felt like telling him that, that he was fighting a dying battle but instead, "I don't like being in water."

Wait.

WHAT?

It seemed like her brain had other ideas today, like giving him the upper hand and telling Vincent about her gruesome motion sickness. He gave her a pointed stare and again, Yuffie's brain felt the need to specify how she didn't like being in water. "I have a bad case of motion sickness." His stare did not fade away. "I mean really bad case. Like being in the water scares me, I get all sick and I'm surprised I didn't vomit all over myself once we got out."

"We were at the shallow end of the river."

"I know that but," Yuffie tried to run her hand through her wet hair, failing miserably. "I've had a bad experience with bodies of water that does not include bathtubs. Haven't you ever been scared enough to get physically sick or something relatively close to that?"

"Not of water in particular."

"Oh shut up." She aimed her punch for his arm but Vincent dodged it effortlessly and she laughed at her futile attempt, but she stopped abruptly as she felt a sudden amount of deep guilt wash over her.

He did hate her right? If you were to look at it objectively, Vincent had to hate her. She forced him in the worst possible way to help her, and there had to be some deep-rooted hate coming from him.

Right. No wonder he was an ass to her.

"Hey." Yuffie frowned as she tried to find the right words, "I'm sorry. You know I'm sorry right." She put her hands behind her head, somewhat uncomfortable with this apology.

"About what?"

"Blackmailing you with her. This really isn't your battle and all. It's just, well you know, I can't take no for an answer, this is sort of a personal thing I have with Shinra and you are too much of a valuable asset."

"You're from a small town." He ignored the first part of their conversation; Yuffie noticed that.

"You could call it that." She shrugged, "Shinra tends to pray on the smaller towns, but no one thinks twice with what Shinra really does until they personally get hurt. It's what prompted me to take action." Yuffie sighed, "I'm sorry that this might hurt you in the process, you know seeing her and stuff, but I'll do anything for my hometown." She looked at him and he understood and Yuffie wasn't sure she wanted him to and what her stupid brain was doing now.

Telling him about her motion sickness and now about Wutai? Something was definitely off today; she never revealed such details about herself. Truly careless.

"You must really love her, huh?" And she was at it again! Didn't she know when to stop? Didn't her brain know when stop? Why did her brain suddenly wanted such intimate details of the pompous jerk named Vincent? Stupid brain.

It was curious, that's all. THAT'S ALL.

"Yes."

And she could see it, in his body language. How his demeanor softened, his eyes a vibrant red, and even to his broad shoulders, they were nonchalant characteristics in other people but they were the characteristics that said most about Vincent. His shoulders were relaxed; a weight finally lifted from them as to finally admit, to himself and to Yuffie of his feelings for a woman named Lucrecia. Inside those undulating eyes of his eyes, the love he had burned for said woman.

It was something Yuffie could not understand; how the physical body reacted so strongly to an emotion such as love. She loved her materia, the magical orbs that granted her powers and cared for planet, so much as to hurt another human but this was all based on her own selfish needs. She couldn't understand how a human being could risk their livelihood for someone they loved. Ah- maybe she could, Yuffie wasn't so heartless, but she found this to be beyond her maturity level. If the gruesome things that had occurred to Vincent had happened to her, Yuffie would never learn to forgive. Not even after a thirty-year sleep.

How could Vincent love her? She was the root cause of his downfall. How could he accept that woman despite what she had done to him? This is why it was impossible to grasp such a concept as love or that the physical body reacted to it. Sure she loved materia and she jumped for joy when she 'acquired' but it wasn't the same thing. This bothered her and instead of thinking about it she massaged the taut muscles of her left leg. "Again, I'm sorry for forcing you into doing this."

"I wasn't forced. I too have issues with Shinra."

"Right. I was getting ahead of myself again." She smiled a bit grimly looking over the horizon into the small yet noticeable towns and especially to the desert, which covered most of this continent. They would just have to get through it, maybe even skirt around it. They needed to get to the other side of the continent and Yuffie pretty much wanted to avoid anything dealing with said desert.

After all, it was known as Corel's prison, and the less she dealt with said town and prison, the better chances Yuffie had to living peacefully away from her father. Speaking of which, she wondered what that old geezer was up to these days, she hadn't been home in a few years. She wondered if that man even knew he had a daughter. Of course he did- no one could ever forget the Great Ninja Yuffie!

She missed Wutai, of course she did, it was her home and she would drop everything in sight just to run again through the halls of DaChao but she couldn't, she was on a mission, besides, that meant crossing an entire ocean, and that didn't make her stomach too happy. She was not going to risk her life to return to some place where she wasn't wanted or even needed for that matter. Which made her think about traveling to Junon, another river and a port city to a ship across an ocean. She really hated her weakness at times; Yuffie rubbed her leg's muscles diligently.

"How are you going to manage getting across an ocean without getting sick?" It was like he read her thoughts, or maybe he noticed the minor change in color of her cheeks; Yuffie wasn't entirely sure.

"By being heavily sedated and possibly vomiting all over your spiky golden boots." She smiled wryly and saw the expression of skepticism in his face. "Don't worry Vinny, I'll try not to, but still have like a trash can near me at all times for good measure."

His shoulders tensed up and relaxed slowly as she had tried to reassure him. She was learning entirely too quickly what set him off and what made him relax. It was disturbing fact and Yuffie was going to realize how big of a problem it was going to be.

"Alright enough babble, let's go."

They went off to look for that port city to Junon.

**B&B**

"You can not make me Vincent!" She screamed out in rebellion from across the river.

"This is ridiculous and you know it."

"No, you're vampiric outfit is ridiculous. We've already discussed this, I don't like water and I won't cross."

"You want to bring down Shinra and yet you can't cross a small river?"

"I don't just want to bring down Shinra!" Her voice was laced with anger. "I want to obliterate them and make damn sure they never reform again. But," and she said this with much uneasiness, "my fear of water has nothing to do with that." She trembled slightly, whether it was fear or anger, Yuffie wasn't so entirely sure of.

Vincent sighed and looked away, she had not been cooperating with him for a few days now and he just about had it with her. He crossed the river once more to her side and tried a different approach. He stood before her and pointed towards her leg brace. "You could take off that armor and leg brace, it will decrease the likelihood of you drowning. You can walk just find without them, can't you?"

"I'm not afraid of drowning."

"So you have other reasons for your motion sickness and fear of water. It is the same reason that you wear that leg brace."

She smiled grimly, "How very perceptive of you. I don't need the leg brace, you're right on both occurrences but you also don't need that gilded gauntlet do you?" She quipped in, "Tell me Vincent, why do you wear that thing anyways, you're hand is perfectly fine isn't it?"

"I'm sure you know why."

Yuffie twisted her hands behind her back. "Yes, as much as you probably know why I still use a leg brace." She paused and looked up to the sky, "We, in a way, complement each other in that department." She smiled bitter sweetly and looked away.

He stayed silent for about a minute before Yuffie realized something was not right about his disposition "Is that so?" His shoulders tensed, his eyes glared at her and his voice- the raspy and throaty voice was too rough to sound like he wasn't displeased. "How easily you can say that. You seemed to have a firm grasp on me and my behavioral peculiarities yet I know nothing about you." Vincent inched closer to her.

She blinked, Yuffie was surprised he was temperamental over something so trivial. It made sense to her, didn't it to him? Then again he was right, he didn't know anything about her, but Yuffie wasn't about to blurt out something painfully emotional right now either. Yuffie had done that a few days ago. Didn't he understand that?

She thought about what she said carefully, "There isn't a whole lot about me. I mean why should I open up old wounds. They don't serve much purpose in learning about my character."

"You opened up my old wounds." He said as a matter of fact.

"I know, and I apologized for that."

"And you decided my character upon it."

"That's because you haven't given me reasons to think otherwise." She felt her voice rise higher and her heart flutter in anger. Why was he making this difficult for her?

"I come from a small town that Shinra didn't give a damn about and I want my vengeance. There's no point in telling you my whole life story because it's not relevant. You just need to know the key points: I want to crush Shinra like the insects they are, and restore my home to the way it was. That's all. Don't you see that, don't you believe me?"

"I don't know, I haven't decided on your character for me to believe you."

And she laughed.

"You know what?" She said with venom in her voice. "You don't have to trust me and you don't have decide on my character to do this either. You're doing it because I'm telling you to and because I know where Lucrecia is and because without me, you will never find her."

And that's when Yuffie knew he hated her, absolutely loathed her. Vincent had to. Because she just theoretically slapped him in the face with what she knew would hurt him the most and there was no way she could cram those words back in mouth. No way Yuffie could pretend she hadn't said something atrocious to him that would eventually widen the already wide rift between them.

She opted to go along with it and Yuffie was going to realize sooner or later, how taboo, the Lucrecia subject was and always would be for them.

"Like I said, no crossing rivers, or I'll be forced to use my shuriken and drag your ass with me to North Corel." She would rather take her chances walking through North Corel than deal with whatever difficulties were rising between them. Really.

"That takes longer."

"I'm sorry who's in charge here?"

He stayed silent and Yuffie knew she had stepped on another minefield with him and she was going to step on them more from now on.


End file.
